Sea to Sky Sooty Grouse
As you can hear in the video commentary below, this bird surprised me so much! Everything about him and his display is so different than anything I’d ever seen before. We heard him first, while walking on the snowy Spirit Trail at the top of the Sea to Sky gondola in Squamish, and then saw…
The Next Year is Always Bigger
We are glad to be moving on from 2021. But we will miss our Big Year. The birds offered us hope and joy and a great deal of local adventures at a time when we were most vulnerable to binge on Netflix. “An exercise in awareness,” as our dear friend Ron would say. While the…
Devoted.
We didn’t win the competition, but when I reflect on our Big Year I am proud. These are the days when I find it hard to be mindful outside of work. I ruin pots when distracted I leave them unattended on the stove. Yesterday, I found the jar of jelly in the spice cabinet two…
Elegant Trogon Ecstasy
When picking a favorite bird of the year, it is hard for all those beautiful feathered creatures who deserve consideration to compete with one that: 1- is utterly beautiful, to my eye at least (what made it evolve like this?) 2- is seen in only a small range within our country, and it’s not our…
Lynn’s Reflections on FamilyBigYear2021
Thank you, Blair, for joining us all together, adding such joy to every adventure in nature throughout 2021. Thank you to all our FamilyBigYear contributors for the friendly competition and sharing your curiosity. I have loved hiking in beautiful wilderness and near wilderness locations for a long time, enjoying the journey one step at a…
Burrowing Owls of the Salton Sea
Back in March, we had wonderful success sighting Burrowing Owls near the Sonny Bono Complex of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, and also near the complex on the side of the two lane highway! Stay safe owls! -Blair
Golden Eagle Quest
Peter was writing papers and I wanted to get outside and log some sightings, so I called our friends who live in a tiny home out in Ramona and are new to birding. We went back to the Ramona Grasslands Preserve and were looking for anything, but especially the Golden Eagle that nests in the…
Colorful in Canada
We tallied our wood duck while with Shane, Holly and Denver in Davis California earlier in the year at the UC Davis arboretum. There we saw some female wood ducks with ducklings. Fast forward to our recent trip to Canada, more specifically to Mud Lake in Ottawa, Ontario, and we were treated to many wood…
Crabtree’s Kitchen
The Swedes miss the lutefisk dinners, but it’s nice to see the birds are still well fed. We collected 21 total species in the Scandia area this trip (August)! Bald Eagle Common Loon Ring-Necked Pheasant Downy Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker Chipping Sparrow American Goldfinch Swallow, Barn Eastern Kingbird Willow Fliycatcher Scarlet Tanager Barred Owl (sound only)…
Family Feud, Payback or Trouble with Strangers
On July 19th while in Harmon Canyon I heard some ongoing screeching. Sure enough it was some raptors. I recognized two juvenile red-tailed hawks and an adult red-tailed hawk flying in and out of a large tree. There seemed to be a territorial contest going on, with the adult finally occupying the tree while the…
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The Big Year 2021 